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Talk:Minor TV Mentions
What Show? This image was uploaded by a user who has not been on since November 2011. I'm leaving a message for them if nobody else knows the answer. What is this from? I did a little digging around on here and couldn't find an answer. -- Nate (talk) 20:15, January 23, 2012 (UTC) :It's from MAD. - Oscarfan 20:17, January 23, 2012 (UTC) ::I'm guessing you meant MADtv. If you know a little more about it, can you add it to the article? I don't know anything about it, and would like to move it out of unused pictures and onto the article page. -- Nate (talk) 17:50, January 25, 2012 (UTC) :::No, it's Mad (TV series), a recent show on Cartoon Network - Oscarfan 18:04, January 25, 2012 (UTC) JHC connections If there was an actor who appeared in a post-2004 Henson Company project and was in a show on here, would they count as a connection? Parstin32 18:14, February 12, 2011 (UTC) :Do they already have a page here or would they merit it on the grounds of stuff we actually cover? That's generally how we handle connections (Glee has Jenna Ushkowitz, without a page, which isn't what we usually do, but her connection is Sesame, so that's more solid). If they don't, we don't track them. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:11, February 12, 2011 (UTC)\ : :Jamie Lynn Spears played Zoey in "Zoey 101" and voiced Goldilocks in "Unstable Fables." Actually, I'm pretty sure I've answered my own question. Parstin32 21:20, February 12, 2011 (UTC) The Ellen DeGeneres Show Today's guest is Jim Parsons, which in the 2nd half of the interview, talks about his lifelong dream to be on Sesame Street, then the segment about arachnids is shown; Would this be a Minor TV mention or not? -- Rnazar (talk) 22:46, November 8, 2010 (UTC) Unintentional references If a TV series has a Muppet reference in it, but they didn't create the reference (they were filming at a real world location) does that count? On Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, there's the old scenario of the bad guy driving into a parking garage, switching cars, and the cops end up following the decoys. For a good amount of screen time, the entrance to the garage is shown, complete with a pricing sign held by a The Sesame Street Book of Fairy Tales era Big Bird, obviously unlicensed. Does that count? -- Zanimum 17:57, July 2, 2010 (UTC) :If you can get a picture, it's still worth noting. See the Boston Legal reference (where it wouldn't count is on COPS or something). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 18:03, July 2, 2010 (UTC) :: Great! Just realizing the show isn't available on CTV network's streaming video site, but I'll try and keep my eye out for the episode reairing. -- Zanimum 13:15, July 6, 2010 (UTC) ??? There is no Fintmore, is there? ---- Jesse (talk) 22:28, May 20, 2010 (UTC) :No. —Scott (talk) 00:34, May 21, 2010 (UTC) Reality, Documentaries, and Passing References This has kind of cropped up before, re talk shows and stand-up comedians and so on, but in cleaning up this page, I thought it worthwhile to decide what our limits are as far as reality programming goes. Several examples here are fleeting and not especially interesting or notable, or occur in contexts related to people who worked with the Muppets. Some of the fictional TV stuff is dull too, but it's different if a script makes a deliberate reference than if someone mentions Sesame Street in passing. An example is So You Think You Can Dance. The details are pretty vague, and apparently all that happened was Nigel Lythgoe, who worked on The Muppet Show, mentioned some unspecified routine they'd done when he worked with them. I don't think that should count, any more than we'd count an interview with Frank Oz, sans puppets, where he mentions Miss Piggy (just Lythgoe is more obscure). It's a little tidbit that would fit better on his page. Slightly similar is the Spielberg on Spielberg thing. That's a marginal improvement since it doesn't pertain to Spielberg working with the Muppets, but he talks about how he learned letters and numbers before Sesame Street. That doesn't strike me as something that qualifies that documentary as a Muppet Mention, but again, it could be worked into Spielberg's page. Key exceptions would be, for example, brief segments on Muppet relevant shows in a larger documentary (TV's Most Censored Moments and others on the page), things like Nova using Muppets in demonstrations, Tim Russert grilling Stephen Colbert with a Bert doll, and any other more elaborate references. But I'm not sure it's really worth it to document every time a real person says "I used to watch Sesame Street," "I didn't have Sesame Street," or "I love the Muppets" in passing (and if they do, if they have a page, it would probably be more amusing and interesting there than buried here). Does that make sense? -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:17, 12 November 2008 (UTC) :I just learned that a show called MXC ("Most Extreme Challenge") has an episode called "Las Vegas vs. Sesame Street." Here it is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQMgPZe0LvE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVp3WkOy3dk :Does this count as a "passing" reference? --MuppetVJ 20:45, April 14, 2010 (UTC) :: The references are repeated, throughout the episode. A host saying he was a "Sesame geek", playing with puppets, a contestant referred to as the Sesame Street liquor store owner... -- Zanimum 18:14, April 16, 2010 (UTC) Mad Men This week's episode of Mad Men ("The Golden Violin") had the agency pitching a new campaign to a coffee client and featured the line "Now, we're aware that unsuccessful attempts have been made -- puppets and so forth -- to capture the attention of youth." Since the series is set in the early 1960s, this is pretty clearly a reference to the Wilkins Coffee commercials, which started in 1957. I think the mention belongs here, especially because the reference is so obscure. But because there is no explicit mention of the Muppets, I wanted to throw it out to the community to see what everyone else thought. -- Peter (talk) 06:16, 9 September 2008 (UTC) :If there were other puppet troupes in the 1960s who were selling coffee, they never became as popular as Jim Henson's. I'd say it's a safe bet they're talking about Wilkins. —Scott (talk) 07:52, 25 September 2008 (UTC) ::I'm not familar with the show, so I don't want to add this since it's been sitting for a year without anyone moving it over, and I'm wondering if it is because we are having doubts. I'm going to bring this conversation up on the Mad Men page though. -- Nate (talk) 00:52, November 16, 2009 (UTC) The Steve Wilkos Show Today I saw an episode of The Steve Wilkos Show that had a Muppet mention. Steve Wilkos was asking a teenager if certain things would make her sad, at one point asking if she'd be sad if Sesame Street was delayed by half an hour. I don't normally watch this show, so I don't know what to put on this page about this show (I don't know the episode number, and I think the on-screen topic was "Teenage Trouble" but even after 8 hours I can't completely remember). Did anybody else see this? Do talk shows repeat their episodes? Or should I put "Show of May 20, 2008"? --Minor muppetz 02:14, 21 May 2008 (UTC) :I wouldn't add it at all, actually. A talk show, especially one of the "troubled teenager" and other personal issues variety, isn't the same as a scripted show, a documentary that includes Muppet footage or devices (like Nova, or the Meet the Press broadcast where Tim Russert brings out a Bert doll), and so on. The fact that someone mentioned Sesame Street in passing is about as significant to our purposes as if my cousin tells me about Kermit the frog. It's just one of those things that come up in conversation. If the theme of the show was "People Traumatized by Sesame Street" or something of that nature, where any comments on Sesame Street and the Muppets were deliberately elicited, that would better fit with the other items here. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:01, 22 May 2008 (UTC) Stand-Up Comedy How do we feel about stand-up comedy? My thoughts are that we should include it if it was a publicized television special, but that any and all other stand-up is non-notable on the grounds that anyone can get up in front of an audience and tell a Muppet joke, they're hard to track and in most cases hard to verify. I just want to make sure we have a guideline before I post what I've got. —Scott (talk) 14:25, 23 April 2008 (UTC) :You mean like what Dave Chappelle says about Sesame Street in his special "Killin' Them Softly"? --MuppetVJ 15:16, 23 April 2008 (UTC) ::I've never seen that, but I would support it if it was a TV special. —Scott (talk) 16:04, 23 April 2008 (UTC) :::It's commercially available on DVD, and it's also shown semi-regularly on Comedy Central. This excerpt ... well, it speaks for itself. --MuppetVJ 16:25, 23 April 2008 (UTC) ::::Yeah, I'd agree with the initial guideline. If it was included in a television special or in a stand-up monologue on a regular series (Saturday Night Live, etc.), it counts as long as we have specifics (not just "In one special which may be aired in the 80s, Shelley Berman did a Bunsen Honeydew impression"; in those cases, it can be parked here). Anything else, as you said, is too hard to verify and not especially notable. If it happened in multiple cases but just brief mentions each time (i.e., say, if Roseanne Barr did several specials in which she mentioned Sesame Street in passing), a group heading ("So and So's Comedy Central specials" or whatever) might be the best way to handle it. My own inclination, for stand-up, would be to be slightly stricter than we are with fictional shows, i.e. only including instances like Chapelle's where it's an extended routine or the joke itself is notable, and not every occasion where some comic says "I'm beepin' Bertandernie here" or what have you unless it's a regular schtick, but that's me (and I'm tired and still on a wonky overheating 1998 machine for now). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 23:42, 23 April 2008 (UTC) :::::I added John Oliver's Comedy Central special. If we end up having a bunch of them, it might be good to group them together like Andrew suggested. —Scott (talk) 02:48, 26 April 2008 (UTC) ::::::Dave Chappelle's show is already on here. Should we make a page for him, and combine everything together, or just mention the special on here? -- Ken (talk) 05:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC) :::::::The special is distinct from the series, and we don't create pages for people who only spoofed the Muppets and have no direct relevance. So in any and all cases like that, a separate special would go here. If there were multiple specials, still distinct from the actual show, it would make sense to discuss them all together here, but not lump in specials and series. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 05:34, 28 April 2008 (UTC) The Jeffersons--Possible Muppet Mention I have found another Minor Muppet Mention to add to the Wiki. This mention is found in "The Jeffersons" episode entitled "Now You See It, Now You Don't--Part 1". Louise (Wheezy) is getting ready for a Halloween party. She wraps a long, red and black feather boa around her neck. She asks Florence "How do I look?" Florence replies "Like you mugged a Muppet." Would this count as a reference? --Josh MsSwanFan 14:19, 17 April 2008 (UTC) :Sure, that would work. --MuppetVJ 14:30, 17 April 2008 (UTC) Connections I've noticed the Connections are spotty on this page. I was going to add them for The Mary Tyler Moore show, but there are 17 names to put up. I was going to just link to that section of the "Projects With Connections" page, but that's kind of graceless. Anyone have suggestions for how to deal with this? -- Mark (talk) 16:40, 6 April 2008 (UTC) :Hi, Mark! The reason Mary Tyler Moore is on the Connections page is because we didn't have a reference before. Now we do. So any and all blanks you see, and any incorrectly formatted entries (they should all say who the actor played and in what episode if a guest spot), feel free to expand and add to. Longer connection lists are fun. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:25, 10 April 2008 (UTC) Resource It just occurred to me how ridiculous it was that That 70s Show never made a Muppet mention, so I went out to prove myself wrong by searching some TV transcripts and came across these: "sesame street" "muppet" "muppets". I don't have time to go through all of them now, but I thought I'd park them here for anyone else interested in going through them. —Scott (talk) 03:59, 25 March 2008 (UTC) :I know that there are at least two references on the show. The 100th episode "Rock Opera" features a cover of "Sing". In a thanksgiving episode from either the fifth or sixth season, Kitty's parents come over for thanksgiving. Her father's name is Burt. During diner, Fez serves food, and after giving food to Burt, he gives food to Bob, calling him "Ernie", and then commenting that Bob looks like the Muppet. --Minor muppetz 03:24, 26 March 2008 (UTC) Muppets don't watch British action shows I stumbled upon this, for the TV series Lock, Stock...' (based on the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). Not strictly a mention, since it only occurs on the DVD cover and appears to be a quote, plus it's using "Muppet" in the slang insult sense. However, the way the word is highlighted, and the mental image of Gonzo or Fozzie missing the series, amused me considerably, so I thought I'd share and park it here. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 04:41, 1 March 2008 (UTC) :That's funny, I'm glad you parked it here. As you noted, it's another example of Muppet (slang). —Scott (talk) 07:41, 1 March 2008 (UTC) Degrassi: The Next Generation Hi there, I had tried including the Degrassi quote about a year ago, which ended up being too brief a mention. But that was before there was a Minor TV Mentions page, so I'm giving it another try. Hope you like what I added, it's kinda fun. --Dave Splurge 00:22, 30 August 2007 (UTC) Vicar of Dibley Hello, I was wondering if this would count as a minor Muppet mention. The British series "The Vicar of Dibley" starring Dawn French had a reference to Kermit in one of their episodes. In the Easter Special of 1996, (sometimes entitled "Easter Bunny") the vicar is explaining the truth behind the Easter Bunny to Alice. The vicar (while trying to break it gently to her) says: "Now at 10 your mother sat you down, and she told you that Kermit was really just an old windsock..." Would this count as a minor Muppet reference? -- user:MsSwanFan 18:54, August 19, 2007 :Sure, that sounds like it qualifies :) —Scott (talk) 22:57, 19 August 2007 (UTC) New Cat I like the new categories, but if this is going to be in Category:TV Mentions, then we need new articles for Minor Muppet Mentions (movies), (albums), etc... — Scott (talk) 01:33, 23 December 2006 (UTC) Home Alone I'm removing Home Alone, as it does not have the reference once thought (I caught the film last night on tv). The article said: The movie actually goes like this: It's not a sweater with Big Bird it's a sweater with a big bird - so it's just a large bird on the knitted sweater, not the Sesame character. -- Brad D. (talk) 18:13, 17 November 2006 (UTC) :Heh. That was a pretty weak reference anyway, and in fact part of the reason many of these were merged (I was long skeptical of Recess, now also removed, for example). So good catch, Brad. In general, really, since most of us aren't as likely to go hunting Muppet references in things we don't watch or read, it's up to the individual user to carefully source and quote any Muppet Mention and not just go on a memory or on what some website said. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 18:22, 17 November 2006 (UTC) The Venture Bros. They mentioned Labyrinth on last night's Venture Bros. Should we add that? --Trogga 01:49, 17 October 2006 (UTC) :If you want to. I wouldn't bother. -- Danny (talk) 01:57, 17 October 2006 (UTC) Full House There are many references to the Muppets in Full House. Should I add them or not? El Problema Grande De D.J.- Joey lists "fluent frog" in his range of languages, which is an impression of Kermit. Unknown episode- Kimmy tries to calm Jesse and Joey by calling them "Ernie and Bert". I think there was another reference in this one, though I can't seem to remember. :There's already a Full House page, but I'd hesitate to add references from unknown episodes, or where you're not able to accurately transcribe the quote. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:42, 2 September 2006 (UTC) :Now I remember the unknown episode. It's Radio Days.Alex (talk) 13:47, 2 September 2006 (UTC) Teen Titans I did some research on the Teen Titans reference, and found a second image. On its own, I wouldn't consider it a reference, but the context is that the character is a "puppet-like" stage manager (who like all the guest characters in the episode, is a clone of villain Amazing Mumbo), and whose line is "Two minutes to show time, Mr. Amazing!" After reading a transcript http://www.titansgo.net/transcripts.php?ep=311, and taken with the Statler and Waldorf depiction and the overall theme of a wild variety show, I'd say this mention is significant enough either for its own page or to be merged into DC Comics. Andrew Leal (talk) 01:51, 1 August 2006 (UTC) :I wouldn't merge it into DC Comics. That article is more about the comics themselves and the traditional representations of them (like the animated Justice League series), whereas Teen Titans is a cartoon spoof. :In the interest of wiki research, I watched the TT episode this evening (much to my distress). I think the additional references from that one episode could be summed up in the same paragraph we have here. I wouldn't give it its own page until we learned of mentions in other episodes. — Scott (talk) 02:01, 1 August 2006 (UTC) ::I guess that makes sense. It just seemed to me that one-line verbal "Sesame Seed" or "I had a Big Bird shirt" throwaways were slightly different from more elaborate visual references. Andrew Leal (talk) 02:11, 1 August 2006 (UTC) :::Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that's how we were doing it. Does a picture constitute a topic getting its own page? If that's the logic, I'd really hate to get rid of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There were no visual gags there, just dialogue. Really, I don't see the difference though. I just thought the visual gags from Drawn Together and Teen Titans were pretty throwaway and suited for this article. — Scott (talk) 02:21, 1 August 2006 (UTC) ::::Scott, you probably missed it, but there's a list of standards at current events, and at Category talk:Muppet Mentions. Danny and I felt ideal Muppet pages would be either recurrent mentions (either visual or verbal) or extended visual spoofs (as well as one-shot comic spoofs as long as an image can be provided and not a vague description ala Shortcuts). This feels to me sort of on a similar level to Angel and "Smile Time" (or for that matter, Meet the Feebles), albeit sans actual puppetry: a plot spoof and more than one visual reference. Drawn Together is a single scene and the plot otherwise has nothing to do with Muppet Show or Sesame Street. Andrew Leal (talk) 02:31, 1 August 2006 (UTC)'' :::::I see. I saw the former, but not the latter. The Drawn Together and Teen Titans refs are still pretty minor, one-note and throwaway gags to me though. How do we decide what gags are minor, one-note and throwaway, and what gags aren't? — Scott (talk) 02:36, 1 August 2006 (UTC) ::::::Did anyone ever say "one-note?" It seems to me there's a difference between "one line/one scene" and one note. Meet the Feebles is pretty one note and it runs 90 minutes or so. But, you've seen the episode and I haven't so make your judgement. I'm only talking about Teen Titans, like I said, since Drawn Together is one scene only, and the equivalent of "Looks like we've got a little cookie monster"; Titans is more the equivalent of three throwaway Full House gags in one episode. That's a one-note page, by the way, but it gets its own article, even if it's lamer than Buffy, based on volume. In this case, it's a case of elaboration: two specific Muppet Show character references in three scenes and a general similarity in motif. Andrew Leal (talk) 02:42, 1 August 2006 (UTC) :::::::Yes, I said one-note. But I've been absent for a few days, so I may have misunderstood the goal of deleting the information. If you want to make an article page for Teen Titans, please feel free. — Scott (talk) 02:45, 1 August 2006 (UTC) ::::::::I didn't actually. I brought it up as a question, since like I said, without seeing it, this seemed comprable to "Angel" to me. And the goal was not to delete "information" so much as discourage the idea that Muppet Wiki should be chronicling every one of 1,000 random one-line Muppet mentions. I guess sticking them all on one page helps a bit. If it were up to me alone, I'd still dump the unsourced Recess and the debatable Baby Looney Tunes until such time as someone can confirm they existed and weren't misremembered by Shane, in the same way we've done on questionable album titles which we have no proof of. Though I admit the addition of the Newhart reference amuses me, so the page is probably a good thing in the long run. Andrew Leal (talk) 02:49, 1 August 2006 (UTC) Braingames--Fraggle mention Hello, I have another minor Muppet mention. From 1984-85, HBO had a series of educational shorts called "Braingames". Although I don't have it on tape, I remember a Fraggle mention. They are mentioned in a regular game on the show called "Whosama-whatcha-macallits". A Youtube link to this game can be found here to give you an idea of how it works: link Anyway, in one of these games, the colors/pixels swirl as the announcer says (if I remember right): "They have hearts of gold; they are fuzzy and love to play. They are..." (A full-color photo of Red and Mokey comes into view)..."The Fraggles". The picture they used (if I'm remembering right) is the same one used on this video. Would this count for a minor Muppet mention, or do you need the clip to confirm it? So You Think You Can Dance Could this be a mention if Cat Deeley called guest Judge Kristin Chenoweth "Kermit"? It was after a routine in which one of the dancers was wearing lots of green. World's Dumbest Thrillseekers 2 Muppet mention On Number 19 of World's Dumbest Thrillseekers 2, there's a Muppet mention of Miss Piggy in this lineup, here's the video.